Maldives’ first protective order issued to a woman allegedly abused by husband for 21 years

A woman allegedly abused by her husband for 21 years has received a protective order against her husband, the first to be granted under the recently enacted Domestic Violence (DV) Law which provides protection for victims of domestic violence.

According to the police, the protective order – intended to protect the victim from further harm or harassment – was requested by the Ungoofaaru Police Station following a complaint filed by the victim at the station on April 30.

In a statement released on Thursday, the police said that the woman has been “a victim of domestic abuse for 21 years” and has faced various forms of abuse from her husband over the years.

“During the investigation police found that the woman definitely needs protection,” the statement read.

Police media official Sub-Inspector Hassan Haneef told Minivan News that the case is under further investigation and no arrests have been made yet.

Meanwhile, the woman remains protected from any further abuse under the protective order, he observed.

“A great help”

“The enactment of the Domestic Violence Act has certainly facilitated police investigations into domestic violence cases. But more importantly, it is a great help for victims of such crimes,” the Sub-Inspector added.

Should the police find reasonable evidence to believe a person is a victim of domestic abuse, the DV legislation stipulates the police can enter the place of crime without a court order and arrest perpetrators and even request for a protective order on behalf of the victim.

Furthermore, if requested, the courts can command the accused person to refrain from certain activities (a restraining order) in a domestic violence case and even issue a maintenance order to ensure a means of support or livelihood to the victim.

The court can grant a three-month provisional order without a trial, or the knowledge of the alleged perpetrator, while he or she is given the right to challenge the order during the trial to make the order permanent.

The Domestic Violence Act defines sexual, physical and emotional abuse of victims, economic and psychological abuse, intimidation, stalking and harassment, deliberate damage to property of the victims as offences while the perpetrators can be subjected to the punishments and court orders.

Violations of these orders are considered criminal offences and the perpetrator can face a maximum fine of Rf50, 000 (US$3242) and a maximum three years of imprisonment.

In addition, the legislation stipulates the formation of “Family Protection Authority”, mandated to conduct programs to support victims of domestic violence, setting out measures for taking all necessary steps to prevent domestic violenceincluding rehabilitating perpetrators of such crimes, arrange easy reporting mechanisms and facilitating the investigations.

A seven member board needs to be appointed to the FPA . The board will be appointed soon, President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan said after ratifying the legislation on April 23.

The passage to endorsement took over a year longer than anticipated, mostly due to the resistance from several MPs who had argued the bill was “un-Islamic” and criticised it for “unduly favouring women” while at the same time making life “extremely difficult” for men, who they said, were wronged by women.

Maldives has a high rate of gender-related violence, particularly affecting women and girls. A national survey on “Women’s Health and Life Experiences” conducted with the support of UNFPA, UNICEF, and WHO showed that one in every three Maldivian women aged 15-49 reported experiencing some form of physical or sexual violence at least once during their lifetime.

14 Comments on "Maldives’ first protective order issued to a woman allegedly abused by husband for 21 years"

sambal on Thu, 3rd May 2012 9:01 PM

This is not the victory everybody is claiming it to be. It’s just a reminder that it took this long for the Maldivian Government to realize spousal abuse is a bad thing.

Nova on Thu, 3rd May 2012 10:20 PM

@ Sambal : Chill

pony on Fri, 4th May 2012 2:40 AM

its def a start!

sambal on Fri, 4th May 2012 3:31 PM

@nova: is that what you have been doing?

Ahmed naseeruddin on Fri, 4th May 2012 4:02 PM

Sheikhs? What’s your say to this?

I am sure you will disapprove. As per you, you are allowed to treat women as objects and do whatever / treat however, you want.

Sheikhs, you have propagated this inequality throughout our history.

Sheikhs, I just wish you would stop thinking about taking the whole country to heaven. If some of us do not want to go to your heaven, it is not a signature for unleashing a tsunami as a final wrath. So why impose your ignorant-thinking on the rest of us?

For those who are not in line, God will select and punish. He would not wipe out the whole country, just because some women do not obey every whim of their husbands.

I am here to provide some guidance to readers in an Islamic viewpoint, as I am a great scholar.

First of all, I am disappointed that our Muslim Majlis members couldn’t throw this bill out as it is against the teachings of Islam.

First of all, men are superior to women in all ways. A woman’s primary job is to stay at home and raise her children to be pious muslims. She should not mingle with unrelated men by going outside her house and if she is going outside, it should be done with a male relative.

“Men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient. They guard their unseen parts because God has guarded them. As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat them. Then if they obey you, take no further action against them. Surely God is high, supreme.” – Quran 4:34

Are we going to prevent what our Lord has asked of us? He knows best for us and he has commanded it in His book! We should obey it, instead of making laws against it!

This is directly from Muhammed S.A.W’s sunnah, which we should follow as an example:

I, however, preceded him and I entered (the house), and as I lay down in the bed, he (the Holy Prophet) entered the (house), and said: Why is it, O ‘Aisha, that you are out of breath? I said: There is nothing. He said: Tell me or the Subtle and the Aware would inform me. I said: Messenger of Allah, may my father and mother be ransom for you, and then I told him (the whole story). He said: Was it the darkness (of your shadow) that I saw in front of me? I said: Yes. He struck me on the chest which caused me pain, and then said: Did you think that Allah and His Apostle would deal unjustly with you? -Muslim

So why are we making these Jewish laws? It’s madness! I call upon Majlis Members to reconsider this!

Kizunkuu on Sat, 5th May 2012 11:06 AM

Dear Sheikh. Do not use parts of verses in the quran and parts of hadhese to paint a bad picture of Islam. In islam the rights of women are clearly mentioned and if some of these so called “Modern thinkers” think that adultry and showing off their bodies is a right they can dream on…every time a woman is covered and fulfills her responsibility towards her family its considered “barberic and old fashioned” how ever if she neglects her family and wears mini s and partys all night and commits adultery it is considered to be “CIVILIZED”… hehehhehe,,,,is this a joke???

Ali Shiyam on Sat, 5th May 2012 11:34 AM

@Sheikh Imran Abdullah

you mean he is a sadist?

A Believer on Sat, 5th May 2012 1:25 PM

Narrated by Ibn ‘Abbas: Allah’s Apostle said: “A woman should not travel except with a Dhu-Mahram (her husband or a man with whom that woman cannot marry at all according to the Islamic Jurisprudence).” A man got up and said, “O Allah’s Apostle! I intend to go to such and such an army and my wife wants to perform Hajj.” The Prophet said (to him), “Go along with her (to Hajj).”

A Believer on Sat, 5th May 2012 1:35 PM

Since the Maldives is one of the Muslim nations, yet there is nothing which shows or proves it’s religious faith as what we see when we go out of room in Male`, as you may know what are the things which islam teaches you , that should be practiced, not just only with your wordings and syaing.!!!

but though we have more and more Sheikhs here, they even cant do anything here as there is a Democratic need which orders the modesty on the people and it’s religion.!!

May Allah guide us in the right path, and to be in the Mode like Saud Arabia,
I am not a Saudi , but I am an Indian muslim, but have knowledge on islam and its ideology.!

Dear Maldivians, please make yourself ready for the hereafter, as I have heard from one of the girls known to me , as she was asked by me, about the dressing and the belief of Maldivians ( few ), she had replied that , if they dont wear this kinda dresses, then what is use of living in this world.!! Which was replied by her.
So i have got the conclusion.!!

this is what I can understand from the comments what you guys have put here.

@sheikh. Well done, keep doing it, I hope you will submit more and more verses and Hadeeths for this. Thanks

Ah on Sun, 6th May 2012 11:24 PM

@ Sheikh Imran Abdullah and other so called Sheiks who believe it is wrong to punish someone for abusing someone else,
Note that the woman mentioned here was abused by his husband. u should be ashamed to preach people.its cause of people like u, this community is loosing faith in each other, and in the religion. people like u are turning Muslim, a beautiful religion in to something unpleasant.

peeved on Mon, 7th May 2012 11:47 AM

Believer n Sheikh! kudos on maintaining the ancients’ draconian views! i wasnt aware that islam protected the strong rather than the weak. if u dont like such ‘anti-islamic’ laws y dontcha guys go live in the deserts in tents?! m sure u can live n die happy among ur harems! n probably your god will allow violence over the houris when u go to paradise. aaah paradise!

peeved on Mon, 7th May 2012 11:53 AM

oh n Sheikh! as is typical of chauvinist pigs like u, u seem to have missed an important part at the beginning of the translation. it starts off as ‘Men are the protectors and maintainers of women because…’ u forgot to mention men are ‘protectors’. so sorry to say but u have a duty to protect women. tough luck eh!